Former Adrian College softball coach discusses Title IX complaint

Molly Ziegler-Moore couldn’t believe that a school of higher learning and receiving federal aid could so blatantly violate a 40-year-old law intended to prevent sex discrimination on college campuses.

Ziegler-Moore, 41, knew she did the right thing, though, when she filed a complaint against Adrian College in 2007 citing the school for failing to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendment in 1972. The law basically banned sex discrimination in athletics and education. The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) ruled in her favor in September 2011, when it ruled that the college did not provide equivalent benefits and services in its athletic facilities to women in 2006-07.

“Fifteen years ago when I began working for them, I never imagined this would happen,” she told about 10 members of the Monroe chapter of the American Association of University Women Tuesday night. “But I had to justify that I’m not a bad person or troublemaker.”

She served as softball coach at the college for 10 years, from 1997-2007, and also worked as the women’s athletic director.

Her final year was tumultuous.

“2007 marked a low point,” she said. “There were some very ugly things and it was a very difficult time for me emotionally. God has a plan for everything and we’re all placed where we’re supposed to be. It was a rocky path, (but he) kept me on my feet.”

Title IX uses 10 criteria for evaluating whether a school is providing equal treatment in men’s and women’s sports. They range from scheduling to travel and housing and dining facilities to per diem allowance for coaches and opportunity to receive coaching and academic tutoring. Her complaint cited concerns in all 10 areas.

Ziegler-Moore, a 1994 Adrian graduate, alleged three main violations in her 12-point complaint. The biggest objection was the lack of equal locker rooms, and practice and competitive facilities. Two other complaints involved assignment and compensation for coaches and tutors and the lack of equal equipment and supplies.

She told how she began asking questions of administrators when a new football-soccer-lacrosse stadium was built in 2006-07 in hopes of boosting enrollment. She recalled looking over blueprints for the stadium and noticed no women’s locker room.

“Oh, it’s in there,” one administrator told her.

It wasn’t. When the stadium opened, she found flat-screen televisions and fine furniture in the men’s locker rooms, but no women’s locker room. The women had to dress in the Merillat Center, the existing multi-sports education complex adjacent to the stadium.

Almost the same thing happened when a new ice hockey arena was built a year later and the women’s locker room was smaller and had lesser accommodations than the men. Behind closed doors for fear of reprisal, the female coaches gathered with her and came up with a list of concerns. Nothing was done with the list until another incident occurred that Ziegler-Moore said was the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

College administrators announced plans to build a new $2 million baseball complex. The next day, she emailed the president asking if the complex had similar facilities for women and was told it would.

Later, after compiling a “wish list” of improvements to replace the portable johns that female softball students were using, she learned that they would not be the same. The new softball complex would cost only $200,000. So she asked a vice president, “is that Title IX compliant?”

“Probably not,” he replied.

She met a speaker at a symposium on Title IX who suggested she file a complaint against the college. The speaker told her that most schools had issues with the law, but she had never heard of such non-compliance as that described at Adrian.

In May, Ziegler-Moore filed her complaint with the OCR and requested that her name be kept confidential under the Whistleblowers Act because of her employment as a coach and a part-time teacher of exercise science.

“That was a very lonely period for me,” she recalled. “A whole aura of distrust surfaced. I saw a lot of people and some very good friends get fired (including her future brother-in-law). Nobody could be vocal in support of me. (They) kept their distance and did so with the provision that I not talk to them in the office.”

She eventually resigned, taking a new job as director of philanthropy at Mercy Memorial Hospital. The OCR’s probe got under way in 2008 when a team of attorneys conducted interviews and garnered extensive information and details on athletic training and facilities. One investigator told her he had “never seen anything like this.” The OCR ruled Adrian did not comply in eight of the 10 categories under the law and ordered the college to correct the violations if it wanted to continue receiving federal money.

Gloria Rafko, president of the Monroe chapter, recalled when she was in high school, they didn’t have sports for girls and they couldn’t even play on the gym floor. Marney Cooley, secretary, said the law was passed to make conditions more acceptable for women.

“We’re a long ways from equity,” Cooley said.

Accompanying Ziegler-Moore for the talk was her younger sister, Mandy Himes. Today, Ziegler-Moore lives in Monroe with her husband and three children.

She said several attorneys told her she could have won a lawsuit against the college had she remained in coaching and been fired. She said the athletic director and president are still in office and many administrators won’t talk to her today. Because the college didn’t build the facilities correctly, it has to spend more money to rectify the problems. She has mixed feelings about the school, but feels vindicated by the outcome.

“It’s not about me,” she said. “I love the school and went back to a couple of homecomings. Instead of being a victim, I (pursued) it because I had hoped they’d make changes to make it right. I hope it does some good.”